What can the energy boys do for your company?

South Africa has a very unique and complicated energy market. Traditionally, energy was very cheap in SA, leading people and companies to be wasteful. The cheaper energy is, the cheaper an energy efficiency intervention needs to be to make financial sense to a business.

So, when South Africa started experiencing its first rolling blackouts and the rise in energy prices, many previously unviable interventions and technologies suddenly became viable and attractive. This, however, didn’t suddenly make energy efficiency a breeze in South Africa.

Instead hundreds of single technology product pushers arrived on the scene, people offering simplistic solutions to small aspects of a larger, more complex problem. So, LED bulbs are energy efficient. Why not replace all of your light bulbs with LEDs? But which LED brand is the best?

Looking for the best of the breed

Then, blackouts associated with grid power can compromise business operations. Why not get a generator for power during these time periods? But, what type of generator? What fuel? What Brand? And is this the best solution to the problem which I’m trying to solve in my business? If you ask a company selling generators whether generators are the way to solve your problem, well you can probably predict the answer. So, how do you find out which solution (or combination of solutions) suits you, your business, and your budget?

It quickly became clear what the market needed. A technology agnostic energy management company with a partnership model, allowing it to provide cutting edge energy saving technology along with management and monitoring solutions, and best of breed in all. And so, Eldo Africa was born.

EldoAfrica has the necessary in house expertise, as well as the strategic partners for an end-to-end holistic approach to energy saving and energy management. And rather than dealing with Company X for their lighting, Company Y for their power quality, and Company Z for their waste water recapture etc, EldoAfrica can take care of the entire spectrum.

Specialists for solutions

Almost no businesses has the same knowledge of South Africa’s energy space as an energy company. Even fewer have the time to learn it themselves. It’s not the focus of their business, nor should it be. So appointing an energy specialist not only takes the headache out of ‘going green,’ but also helps businesses to make better decisions in their energy management initiatives.

So, if EldoAfrica isn’t a technology company, what do they primarily sell? Services, solutions and their energy market knowledge. Eldo Africa will come and perform different levels of energy audits on a client’s site to firstly understand the site’s systems and objectives, and then to identify savings opportunities.

They will then analyse the different possible savings opportunities and put them into rands and cents, making quantifiable businesses sense out of the landscape of options with which a client is presented.

Eldo takes the process from beginning to end:

• from energy audit,
• to reports and recommendations,
• to project financing and implementation,
• installation and servicing, and
• finally on-going energy management and reporting services through software and dedicated client account mangement.

Eldo Africa consists of 3 divisions, through which processes are streamlined and optimised to maximize the offering to clients and make the magic happen. These divisions are DSM (demand side management), smart grids, and finance and trading.

Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management

This is where we deliver real energy savings by managing energy and resource costs and by permanently eliminating inefficiencies and waste. We identify and rectify inefficiencies, install energy reduction equipment and software. To ensure that results and performance are sustained and optimized, EldoAfrica provide ongoing monitoring and management in close cooperation with our clients.

Metering/AMI and Smart Grids

All EldoAfrica customers are equipped with a ‘Smart Meter,’ which allows EldoAfrica and its clients to measure and monitor consumption dynamically without having to wait for ‘the meter man’ to arrive once a month (at best!).

It also allows us to measure consumption before and after the energy saving interventions are implemented. The Smart Meter is our clients guarantee that the energy savings are fully documented and performance is tracked on an ongoing basis.

This Smart Meter also allows EldoAfrica to offer our clients highly competitive meter management services.

EldoAfrica will proactively measure and monitor actual consumption versus our clients’ electricity bills and conduct billing reconciliation and tariff optimization with Eskom or the Municipality on behalf of our clients. This valuable proposition is above and beyond the already mentioned energy savings initiatives.

Finance and Trading

Even though EldoAfrica is selling solutions that actually save our clients money, we do acknowledge that the current economic environment makes it difficult to make mid- to long term investments, even though the investment appears profitable.

To address this challenge, our Financial Services Division will be able to offer innovative, bespoke financial solutions allowing our clients to launch their energy reduction plan. EldoAfrica also integrates financial incentives from Eskom as well as carbon savings (CDM) in our proposition to clients.

The fundamental message is that the energy reduction plan has to make financial and operational sense for all parties involved.

Through these 3 divisions and Eldo Africa’s industry heritage, knowledge and insight, business can rest assured by partnering with Eldo Africa to take away the headache by taking on your company’s energy worries.